NY Tax 'Linsanity': Player Saves Over $1M in Taxes by Moving

Jeremy Lin is Exhibit A in why New York State has seen the biggest exodus in the country and a loss of $45.6 billion in income.

Lin, an undrafted guard from Harvard whose overnight fame for his deft play birthed the term “Linsanity,” was traded by the New York Knicks to the Houston Rockets. According to Americans for Tax Reform, Lin saves over $1 million per year in taxes moving from New York to Texas.

After signing a three-year, $25.1 million contract with the Rockets, Lin moves from one of the highest taxed states in the country to one of the lowest. Lin paid a top state income tax rate of 8.82 percent, with New York City piling on at 3.876 percent. In Texas he will have no state or local tax burden, according to Americans for Tax Reform. At an average salary of $8,366,667, Lin will save over $1 million annually in state and local income taxes.

So in total, Lin will save over $3.12 million in income taxes over the life of his contract with the Rockets, the group said.

New York State, which has ranked second for the highest state and local tax burden in 2009 and has consistently ranked the highest for tax burden every year, has lost 3.4 million residents to other parts of the country over a 10-year period, representing the biggest exodus in the country and a loss of $45.6 billion in income.

The state gained 2.1 million during that same period, 2000-2010, with net migration totaling 1.3 million, according to the Tax Foundation. The migration out of New York represents a loss of $45.6 billion in income.

New York State’s loss has been Florida’s gain, with more than 600,000 New York residents relocating to the Sunshine State over the decade, with its more lenient tax system and warm weather. They took about $20 billion in adjusted growth income with them, the Tax Foundation said. Florida welcomed 208,794 Pennsylvanians during that same time period and took in their $8 billion in income.

Americans for Tax Reform pointed out that in terms of gross state product growth, the nine states without a personal income tax outperformed the nine states with the highest personal income tax by 39 percent over the past decade and those without a personal income tax have outperformed the U.S. average by over 25 percent over the past decade.

Also, it seems that Americans are taking notice of the states’ tax picture: Average population growth among the nine no-tax states was 148 percent higher than in the nine high tax states over the past decade.